Book A Court

Book a Court is an online court booking and payment platform, connected to a keyless entry mechanism that can unlock the gate and turn on the lights when a player enters their personal booking PIN.

This technology is designed to benefit members, non-members and administrators alike:

• Easy access for all players.
• Full visibility of court availability, coaching and competitions.
• No more light tokens; lights automatically turn on when needed.
• No more lost or forgotten keys; access is via a keypad and personal PIN.
• Increased security and control of our fantastic facilities.

All casual sessions will need to be pre-booked online. If lights are required, you will be charged at the time of booking and they will turn on automatically. Your key will no longer access any of the gates; the courts will only be accessible by entering your PIN into the keypad on the front gate.

It’s easy!

• First you must register your Book A Court account online using the link in the invitation email sent out to all members. Simply confirm your details, create a password and you’re in.
• Click above to book.
• Select the day, time and duration that you want to play, or view the full booking schedule to view all existing bookings, availability and costs.
• Confirm and pay using a credit/debit card, if applicable. There is no charge to members for court hire, they do however need to pay for light usage.

There are no changes to any court hire costs. All casual players are charged for lights if required, at $5 per court for 30 minutes. There is no charge to members using the courts during the day, and non-members are still welcome to play as guests of members.

• Enter your PIN followed by the return key (⏎). Your PIN will allow you access from 10-15 minutes before until 15 minutes after the booking time.
• The gate will relock 5 seconds after unlocking, but you can re-enter it as many times as you need to.
• If lights are required, they will turn on automatically as soon as the booking is activated (PIN entered), and remain on for 15 minutes after the booking finishing time.

Nothing more to do but enjoy your tennis! There’s no rush to exit the premises after your booking, as the gate can be opened from the inside at any time with the door latch rather than the keypad.

Recurring bookings are pre-set by the system administrator. The coaches will open the gates at the start of their sessions, using their personal PINs. Competitions will share a common PIN, distributed to all member participants so that the first person there can open up, as usual.

• As with all bookings, these sessions will allow access and lighting 10-15 either side of the booking time.
• Unlike other bookings, the gate will not relock, but remain open for the entire duration, so the PIN only needs to be entered once.
• If lights are required, they will turn on automatically as soon as the booking is activated (PIN entered), and remain on for 15 minutes after the booking finishing time.

The gate will open in accordance with the booking schedule, so there is no need to prop the gate open under any circumstance. Everyone using the courts should have a valid booking or be participating in coaching or competitions. There will always be people that want to use great facilities like these for free, but if we all try to minimise this it will ensure the club can keep membership and competition fees to a minimum.

Play on your booked court and be respectful of other players and bookings. All the usual etiquette applies: wear appropriate footwear, maintain supervision of children, take all of your belongings with you and dispose of any rubbish in the supplied bins.

No problem! Players can automatically cancel their own bookings up to 12 hours before the booking start time – just click on "My Bookings" after you have logged in. This will also fully refund any payment made via Stripe.

After this time, they will need to contact the system administrator (see Who do i talk to) to change, cancel and or refund it. This also applies to washouts, even if you have already started playing.

The system has a backup battery that will provide power for approximately 24 hours, after which the gate will remain locked and the facility will only be accessible to coaches and committee members. If the blackout is also affecting the mobile network, then the system will not receive any new bookings made during this time. Existing bookings confirmed before the blackout will still operate as normal, except for lights of course! If there are any problems, just contact the Book A Court system administrator (see Who to contact below).

That’s up to you. Members can view the schedule and make bookings up to 30 days in advance, but you can also book a session 1 minute before the start time if you’re more spontaneous. At the moment, it is not possible to book a start time that has already passed, but at worst you’ll only have to wait 15 minutes before you can get access to the next session.

Note that it can also take up to 5 minutes for your booking to register with the keypad so just get a head start on your stretches and try again in a few minutes.

Yes. Once you register on the Book A Court system, you will receive a unique 4-digit PIN that will not change. The PIN will be sent to you via email and text message every time you make a booking. This is equivalent to your old gate key, so keep it private as all bookings made with this PIN are your responsibility.

Feel free to discard it or keep it for old times’ sake, whatever you like. It will no longer open any of the gates, which will be recoded for committee and coach access only.

No need, they’ll turn on for free if it gets dark enough. The system automatically monitors the light level and ensures you have enough light to play by – no excuses for dodgy line calls!

Lights are charged based on our best guess of when they will be required. We will make every effort to update the hours at which lights are charged, based on sunset and sunrise times throughout the year, but we can’t anticipate cloud cover, bush fires, volcanic eruptions or locust plagues. Ideally, you’ll get a little bit of free lighting when this happens. If we’ve miscalculated, and you pay for lights unnecessarily, just contact the system administrator (see Who do i talk to) and we’ll reimburse you.

Yes, but the system doesn’t currently allow different users with the same email address. Email addresses can easily be updated in your MyTennis profile, after which an invitation to register on the Book A Court system can be resent.

Tennis Australia are still in the process of fully combining the Book A Court system with MyTennis, and in the meantime updated details can take some time to flow between the two. If you’re making changes to your MyTennis details that you want Book A Court to synchronise with urgently, just alert the system administrator (see Who to contact below) and they will contact Tennis Australia on your behalf.

There’s no problem sharing a single account and PIN within a family, so it’s up to you. Booking confirmations are sent via email and text message, but you can view your bookings using the online schedule at any stage and keep a note of your PIN if you can’t remember it easily.

All payments are managed by Stripe, which is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry.

Your payment details are not stored by the Woodend Tennis Club, Tennis Australia or your computer/device. The "Remember me" option enables two-step verification of the payment information via an email address and phone number. However, the Stripe widget will keep you logged in by default for successive payments on the same computer/device. Bear this in mind if sharing your login with other family members.

We’re here to help, just get in touch with the Book A Court system administrator (see Who do i talk to) and we’ll work something out.

You can approach any of the committee members, who have the latest information to help you. If you have a system issue and need a quick resolution, please contact the system administrator:

Paul Riches
facilities@woodendtennis.org.au
0422 747 589